Is my GTX 260 old?

M

MrHood22

Supreme [H]ardness
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Currently i'm running a overclocked Q6600 (3.2ghz), overclocked 4gb DDR2 800 (830mhz), and overclock GTX 260 (668mhz, 1100mhz, 1430mhz).

I've just upgraded to a 2500k and 8gb DDR3 1600.


I will be using this to play various new games (ie. BF3, Call of Duty, etc). Currently I have 2 x 22" (1680 x 1050) but may be upgrading to something better ( 2 x 24", 22" +27", etc). Will my GTX 260 be sufficient or should I upgrade it with the rest of my system?

If so, what should I upgrade to? I'm looking for something below $200. Google makes me think it comes down to "GTX 560 (non-TI) vs 6870".
 
A gtx 260 is definately not enough for BF3. I have a GTX 295 and it doesn't perform well. A GTX 560 would be my choice. Actually, in my case, I was debating over 2x 560 or 1x 580.
 
If your looking to use multiple monitors you should probaly grab a AMD card 6950 2GB or something similar
 
With rebates, you can get a GTX 560 Ti for around $200 or, for a little more, a 6950. Below $200 it pretty much is either a GTX 560 or a 6870. I'd try to stretch the budget a few dollars and step up a notch, myself.
 
I would be willing to stretch it to ~$225 if the difference would be well worth it.
 
MrHood22 said:
Currently i'm running a overclocked Q6600 (3.2ghz), overclocked 4gb DDR2 800 (830mhz), and overclock GTX 260 (668mhz, 1100mhz, 1430mhz).

I've just upgraded to a 2500k and 8gb DDR3 1600.


I will be using this to play various new games (ie. BF3, Call of Duty, etc). Currently I have 2 x 22" (1680 x 1050) but may be upgrading to something better ( 2 x 24", 22" +27", etc). Will my GTX 260 be sufficient or should I upgrade it with the rest of my system?

If so, what should I upgrade to? I'm looking for something below $200. Google makes me think it comes down to "GTX 560 (non-TI) vs 6870".
Click to expand...

Yeah the 260 is very old hat now. Although saying that my 4890 holds out very well at 1080p. More interesting are any improvements you've noted in CPU-heavy games from your upgrades so far.
 
Yup, the GTX260 is two generations old, and soon to be three. 3 years is a long time in the hardware world. If you want to play cutting edge games at high detail fluidly, you'll need to upgrade.
 
The 560 Ti and the 6950 trade blows, so either one is fine. Right now you can get Batman with the Nvidia cards, versus Dirt 3 for AMD, so if you prefer one of those games, or one manufacturer over another - but performance-wise they are about the same, with just a slight edge (and price premium) for the 6950.
 
I just went from a 4870 to a msi twin frozr 6950 II OC and im super happy with it so far, might add another if its needed later this year
 
I've read some places that Intel set ups should go Nvidia and AMD should go AMD.

Their reasoning was that they are "optimized" to run best together. Is there any weight to this?
 
If your into the newer games coming (sounds like you are) you need a more powerful card and the bare minimum 1GB of video ram for 1 screen let alone multiple. If you plan to game on multiple screens and play the likes of battlefield 3, then I'd recommend no less than 2GB of video ram.
 
Do you feel like you need to upgrade?
Does it run your current stuff fine?
 
MrHood22 said:
I've read some places that Intel set ups should go Nvidia and AMD should go AMD.

Their reasoning was that they are "optimized" to run best together. Is there any weight to this?
Click to expand...

Nope - despite what you might think, Intel and nvidia hate each other.
 
I'm looking at this:

Gigabyte 6950 1gb

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125385

$220AR


I know some of you are saying 2gb is the way to go but I don't know if I really need that since the most i'll be doing is gaming on one screen and watching a movie on the other. I feel like I'd only need 2gb if I was gaming on both screens and/or running really high resolutions. I was also thinking that if I do end up needing that extra power down the road I could always pick up another 6950 in crossfire. Is that correct?
 
MrHood22 said:
I'm looking at this:

Gigabyte 6950 1gb

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125385

$220AR


I know some of you are saying 2gb is the way to go but I don't know if I really need that since the most i'll be doing is gaming on one screen and watching a movie on the other. I feel like I'd only need 2gb if I was gaming on both screens and/or running really high resolutions. I was also thinking that if I do end up needing that extra power down the road I could always pick up another 6950 in crossfire. Is that correct?
Click to expand...

As games get more and more memory demanding (and they are starting to get there see BF3) the 1gb will not be enough. That's happening now before you even buy a card. Imagine 2 years from now and your going to be in exactly the same situation that you are now with a 896mb card. My advice... Don't repeat the same mistakes over and over. Pay the extra $20-$30 and get a 2gb model. I only see people unhappy when they underbuy for what they need. If you buy a little more than you need you will always enjoy your purchase more and for a longer time which is important because you seem like the type of person who keeps their hardware for a few years.

As for adding the 2nd card to alleviate the problem... Adding a 2nd card can increase your gpu power but will not double your vram, so in games that your vram is holding you back adding a second card will not fix your issue
 
I very rarely see people annoyed because what they bought was overkill for their needs, not with graphics anyway.
 
That's my card of choice for that price range - not really anything that beats it for now, unless you want to go for a shader unlock, in which case you're better off trying for a Sapphire Toxic card, but they're priced pretty closely to the real HD6970.
 
Does anyone know how the OCing is on the XFX 6950 I linked?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150549


One of the reviews said they could only get it to 840mhz (stock: 800mhz). However, it also said it runs very hot (77c) at full load. That seems pretty cool to me considering my GTX 260 gets to around 85-90c in some games. So i'm not sure how much faith I can put on it.

I also heard some of the newer ATI cards have driver issues.
 
Video performance is based a lot on the resolution you are running, The card you have may be perfectly fine for you and absolutely terrible for someone else so too know for sure you need to take in account of the pixels being generated to know how much TFLOPS of power you really need :) in other words you card may be overkill for someone running 800x600 but absolute trash for someone running 1920x1080.
 
77C is not hot for a full load temperature at all, anyone who says it is clearly doesn't know what they're doing, and the rest of their review will be void.
 
samuelmorris said:
77C is not hot for a full load temperature at all, anyone who says it is clearly doesn't know what they're doing, and the rest of their review will be void.
Click to expand...



My thoughts exactly. The [H] review only got it up to 875 (75mhz increase) so I think i'll shoot for 60mhz. I feel like the newer the GPU's the less you can OC. I think my 8800GT OCed about 180mhz, GTX 260 is about 120mhz.


Anyway, I pulled the trigger and got this. An [H] forum member should be shipping me the 2500k and Mobo (MSI p67) today.
 
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